


and turn again

by dreamerfound



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Choices, Gen, Grant Ward Redemption, fork in the road
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 08:50:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12128886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerfound/pseuds/dreamerfound
Summary: Grant Ward weighs the choices he faces in episode 1x17: Turn, Turn, Turn.





	and turn again

**Author's Note:**

> Skye, Coulson, Fitz, Simmons, John Garrett and Victoria Hand all mentioned is passing.  
> Hints at a potential Skyeward ship but in no way focuses on it.
> 
> Canon divergence at the end of 1x17.  
> Title is taken from the episode title: turn turn turn

Grant Ward knew that the end was coming soon. His mission was almost over. He didn’t want it to be. He had grown to like being a part of a team. He hadn’t thought he would. In the beginning, it was all about the mission. Skye made things different. She wasn’t the only reason for his change of heart though. He had genuinely come to like the geek squad. Fitz and Simmons were special. Agent Coulson was a great agent and a good man. When he and Fitz were in Russia without an extraction plan, Coulson had their back. The rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. may have considered them an acceptable loss, but Coulson and the team refused to leave them behind. Garrett hadn’t prepared him for that. The picture his SO had painted of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a ruthless one that didn’t think twice of leaving a man behind if that was what it took to complete a mission. It was always about the mission. Coulson played by a different set of rules. In Coulson’s world, the team meant everything. You never left one of your own behind. People got second chances. It sounded like a fairytale compared to what Garrett taught him. Ward wondered if they would give him a second chance if he tried to change his path.

He was scared to find out. He didn’t want to think about how the team would see him if they found out what he was; if they found out he’d been serving HYDRA this whole time. He knew they’d be disappointed. How could they not? At this point, even he was disappointed in himself. Grant had come to see John Garrett as what he really was, his abuser. Garrett has used him, molded him into a weapon; made him into something to wield. He had been young and vulnerable and Garrett had not only taken advantage of that, but had targeted him because of it. He should have listened when John told him not to trust him. 

Would the team understand? Could they ever come to forgive him? Would Skye? He didn’t think it was likely. Would they accept him as the man he was, or would he have to keep on pretending to be the boring by-the-books Grant Ward they thought he was? It didn’t matter, he had a mission. He intended to complete it. But did he really have to? 

Garrett had been found out. What would happen to the mission now? HYDRA was supposed to be secretly working within S.H.I.E.L.D., now that they had come out into the light, wasn’t the mission over? He volunteered to bring Garrett to the Icebox because that was one of the contingency plans. Garrett had a few of them, in case he ever got caught. There hadn’t been any in place if Ward had been found out though. He hadn’t thought anything of it before. It was different now. He was different now.

What would happen if he just went along for the ride and didn’t stop them from locking Garrett up? Would Garrett rat him out? Would anyone believe him? If no one knew he was ever a part of HYDRA, could he go back to the team? Could he go back to Skye? He wanted to, but was that enough? Wouldn’t he just be going to the losing side? S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen. HYDRA was winning. Wasn’t changing sides now a fool’s dream?

Then it happened. Agent Hand offered him an opportunity. Grant knew what Garrett would expect him to do. It was what he trained for. He could take out Victoria Hand and her men, and he and Garrett would make a run for it. It would be easy. It was the path he was already on. Moving forward was simple.

There was another choice. He could do exactly what Hand was asking him to do. He could put a bullet in the man who made him into the killer he was today, he could return to the team, have that drink with Skye and help them in the fight to come. Maybe they’d win, maybe they wouldn’t. Did it matter? He’d be part of the team for real and they would never have to know what he once was.

Grant Ward stood, pointed the gun at John Garrett, and pulled the trigger. He didn’t stop until he was out of bullets. It was over. It had just begun.

**Author's Note:**

> written for trope bingo round nine  
> prompt: fork in the road


End file.
